Elena Rybakina stops 2022 runner-up Collins to reach round of 16
Elena Rybakina defeated Danielle Collins 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 on Friday night. She’ll face the winner of the match between Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed, and Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa in the next round
Elena Rybakina 2023 Australian Open (AI/Reuters/Panoramic)
Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 22 seed, defeated 2022 runner-up American Danielle Collins, the No 13 seed, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to move into the last 16 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Friday night.
Rybakina, ranked No 25, will square off with Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed, in the round of 16. The battle will be a showdown between the winners of the last two major titles on offer, with Rybakina claiming the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon, and Swiatek taking the crown at the US Open.
Swiatek won the pair’s only previous tour-level meeting at Ostrava in 2021, 7-6(5), 6-2, in the quarter-finals.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion hit 8 aces and 33 winners to book her spot in the round of 16 at the Australian Open for the first time.
Rybakina opened her season with a three-set win over Collins in Adelaide, and improves to 2-1 over the American.
Ahead of her victory, the Kazakh won against Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (7-5, 6-3) and Slovenian Kaja Juvan (6-2, 6-1).
Collins, ranked No 11, edged out Russian Anna Kalinskaya (7-5, 5-7, 6-4) and Czech Karolina Muchova (6-7 (1), 6-2, 7-6 (6)) in the previous rounds.
Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):
- Magda Linette vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
- Laura Siegemund vs. Caroline Garcia
- Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Marketa Vondrousova
- Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elise Mertens
- Shuai Zhang vs. Katie Volynets
- Camila Giorgi vs. Belinda Bencic
- Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Donna Vekic
- Varvara Gracheva vs. Karolina Pliskova
- Lin Zhu vs. Maria Sakkari
- Madison Keys vs. Victoria Azarenka
- Iga Swiatek vs. Cristina Bucsa
- Kateryna Baindl vs. Jelena Ostapenko
- Bernarda Pera vs. Coco Gauff: friday
- Jessica Pegula (3) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-0, 6-2
- Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-2, 6-3
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